Disability in 2012: Tyler Saunders

Tyler Saunders is a name to watch. A wheelchair basketball athlete, he’s destined for glory at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. The next four years will test his nerve, stamina, and determination. “The training schedule is punishing, but I’m ready,” he says. “Being an athlete is the best job in the world.”

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Tyler was born with just his left leg. As a child, he used a prosthetic right leg and got “stuck in” to sports at his mainstream school. “I loved PE. No special provisions were made because of my disability. I just got on with being a kid.”

Maths lessons were a chance to sit at the back of class, daydreaming about the next game of basketball. “It was all about pulling flashy moves and outwitting my opponents,” he says. “Obviously you need two legs to run fast, but hand to eye co-ordination is your secret weapon and that was an area I could excel in.”

At 16, just as he was entering the thick of GCSEs, Tyler discovered wheelchair basketball at a local club. He played a few games before leaving to concentrate on exams. College and university years followed and basketball dropped off Tyler’s radar: “Looking back, if I’d stuck with it, I’d probably be competing in the national squad now.”

Coming back to basketball

It wasn’t until 23 that Tyler rediscovered the game. “I got the buzz back. The trainer was behind me. Everything felt right,” he remembers. “The hardest part was learning to control and manoeuvre the chair. I’d fly out each time I practised, much to the amusement of my team mates.”

Despite those early bashings, Tyler loves the intensity of his sport. “Spectators watch their first basketball game open mouthed. It’s physical and fast paced. There’s an assumption that disabled athletes play slower, or try not to hurt each other, but we have collisions and injuries, it’s a high impact game.”

Tyler’s rising talent was spotted in 2008 when he was drafted onto the Great Britain programme. He says playing alongside world class players was as daunting as it was exciting. “Your fitness, decision-making, reaction time... everything comes under the spotlight. It was time for me to get serious.”

Despite reducing his work hours to fit in extra training, Tyler still felt he wasn’t giving enough. “It’s harder for disabled athletes to get to the top,” he explains. “We’ve got the daily challenges of being disabled to deal with so training as an elite athlete on top of that is extra hard.

“I know some guys who wake up two hours before a 6am session just to get washed, shaved and changed. We have to be more focussed, more determined, more dedicated.”

Playing professionally

This September, Tyler is relocating to a German club to become a professional player. For the first time in his career, he’ll be giving 100 per cent to the game. “Having to wake up at stupid o’clock on a cold morning to push up a hill in your chair, that’s hard,” he says. “But when you’re resting, another athlete somewhere else in the world is busting their gut in the gym.”

Surely at his level, the training is as psychological as it is physical? “Absolutely, that’s where belief and passion comes in. I’m still that kid daydreaming about shots. My childlike enjoyment of basketball has never gone away.”

For Tyler, the difference between the traditional and the wheelchair game comes down to sheer brawn versus strategy. “In the NBA [US basketball league], players muscle past each other and the strongest usually wins,” he says. “In wheelchair basketball, the chairs add to our size so we can’t get round each other that easily. We think fast and plan ahead to get another player free for a shot.”

He might not be competing this year, but Tyler says the 2012 Paralympics couldn’t have come at a better time. “Disabled people are getting a rough ride in the press right now,” he says. “I don’t know where this lazy, benefit scrounging opinion comes from, nobody sent me that questionnaire!

“We’ve got a strong, disciplined and ambitious GB squad. I’m sure they will beat our non-disabled counterparts in the Olympics, hands down. Perhaps seeing us winning gold for our country will change a few mindsets – starting with the media.”

So what’s Tyler’s strategy for winning gold in 2016? “Training, training, determination, ambition - and throw in a bit more training for good measure,” he laughs. “I’ll see you in Rio!”